The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1887-06-24
A Tempest in n Teapot.

ltmptst III lcHpOt.
The proposed return 10 the different States
of flags captured by the Union forces during
the war has raised a great cutlery among the
class of warriors whose warlke enthusiasm
was aroused only after the war was over,
but the excitement being confincd 10 them
alone, has measurably subsidized, since the
facts have come out.
1t appears that there are in the War De-
partment building, at Washington, u number
of boxes containing torn, tattercd and de-
cayed Confederate flags captured in battle,
together with Union flags rc,aken from the
Condolences. These memenl0es offraternal
strife were of no possible use and the damp
ness and mould were eating them away. Ac-
cordingly Adjutant General Drum, promi
nent Republican, who had charge of them
suggested that they be transmitted to the re-
spective States to which the regiments that
bore them belonged.
Secretary of War EndicOtt approved the
suggestion, which was endorsed by many
prominent and patriotic Union Generals and
President Cleveland therefore issued an
order that they be returned as suggested
He subsequently rescinded the order, upon
ascertaining that Congress alone had authori-
ty to dispose of them.
The order, however, aroused great deal
of bitterness pretended or otherwise, among
tie swashbucklers and politicians whose
aim is TO keep alive the angry passions which
were developed by the war, The most fierce
denunciator of the order was Gen. Fairchild,
Commander of the Grand Army ofthe Re-
public, who uttered the most atTocious and
disgracefu sentiments in regard TO it. Gen.
Averill and other officers, distinguished for
bravery in the field, did not a.ree with The
redoubtable Fairchild, and thought that the
return of the flags would he means of still
further efacing the memory of the bloody
fratricidal contest.
not come from Southerncrs. Dear as the
emblems of the Lost Cause may be 10 them
they would have preferred that the offer for
their restoration should have come from
those who captured them, and they would
have accepted the gift as another evidence of
the return of more kindly feelings on the part
of their former antagonists. Many Union
battle flags captured by Southern troops
have been carried to the North by those who
had possession of them, and restored to their
former possessors. These evidences of good
will have invariably been received in the fra
ternal spirit in which they were offered, and
the ties between the two sections ola common
country lave thereby been strengthened.
1t is intimated that the suggestion of the
return of the Confederate flags came first from
q prominent and crafty Republican, who
thought he saw in it chance to embarrass
President Cleveland administration and por-
vide an issue by which the Republican party
could arouse the fast dying out war feeling in
the Northern and Western States The politi-
cal hablliments of the Republican party must
be scanty, indeed, whf n il seeks again 10 don
the bloody shirt and march to battle under
that frayed and sanguinary emblem.
1t would be better, perhaps, If these old
battle-,orn flags and every other relic of the
civil war were consigned to the flames, They
would then no longer disturb the rest of
stay-at home soldiers whose courage, like that
OF Bob Acres, oozcs out in the presence of
the enemy, and who are only bold when there
is no danger.
Here are the scditious words uttered by
Gen. Fairchld:
"May God palsy the hand that wrote the order.
May God palsy the brain that conceived 1t, and
may God palsy the tongue that dictated it."
Read them in connection with what Gen.
Grant wrote and placed in the hands of Gen
Buckner, when the shadows of death were
gathering around him.
81 have witnessed since my sickness just what
have wished to see ever since the war-har-
mony and good feeling between the sections. |
have always commended that If there had been
nobody left but the soldiers we would have had
peace In a year, and are the
only two that l know of who do not seem to be
satisfied on the Southern side. We have some
on ours who failed to accomplish as much as
they wished, or who did not get warmed up TO
the fight until 1t was all over, who have not
had quite full satisfaction. The great majority,
too, of those who did not go into the war have
long since grown tired of the long controversy.
We may now well look forward to q perpetual
peace at home, and q national strength that will
secure US against any foreign complication. |
believe myself that the war was worth all il cost
US, fearful as that was. Since 1t was over |
have visited every state in Europeand a num-
Der in the East. know, as | did not know
before, the value OF our inheritance"